Monthly Archives: July 2013

One of the problems with this challenge is that I am going to end up with too many ideas for what to make, some of which are bound to be beyond my skill level! Recently I have seen a few things on the internet that I would LOVE to make, but am not sure I can…

1. My cat, as with cats everywhere, likes to hide inside things. Recently she has favoured my husband’s panniers for his touring bike. This has made me think she would really love a cat cave… You can make them out of felt but it would use a LOT of wool and a LOT of arm muscle power (totally lacking in that!). Still it’s pretty tempting, how cool are these?

2. I saw this whale shared on a friend’s facebook page and tracked down the tutorial to a Finnish blog. I really doubt I could manage to make this well, seeing as my sewing is dreadful but I may try… We have plenty of old jeans around the house as my husband wears them out incredibly quickly.

3. Hints. I have had a hint that R would like gloves. I quite fancy trying to knit some anyway, but now I’ve got a pattern they actually look tricky. I just hope they turn out ok, and that people will understand if they get gifts that aren’t quite shop bought standards of perfection…

I like making knitted toys, especially for very small children, though I recently read in a newspaper article that new parents consider them a “naff gift”. Still, it’s a machine washable “naff gift” with no pieces that can come off and choke a child, and one that’s easily fixable if Mr Stegosaurus becomes such a favourite he’s dragged everywhere. Makes a change from bootees anyway.

As long as I don’t get loads of comments telling me that people really don’t like knitted toys they are definitely in contention for this challenge for a few of the small children in my life. My most recent finished object is a knitted panda for a colleague who is currently nearly 8 months pregnant. Did you know that combinations of black and white are recommended by child development experts to stimulate babies brains? I think he’s cute anyway. He is from Sarah Keen’s book “Knitted Wild Animals”.